Last Thursday, tens of thousands of Spaniards took to the streets in outrage, calling for a new trial and updated definition of 'rape' after the acquittal of five men, among them a former police officer and former soldier, accused of raping an 18-year-old woman at the ‘Running of the Bulls’ in Pamplona in 2016. The men, who called themselves ‘the wolf pack’ (la manada) on a shared WhatsApp group, have been sentenced to nine years’ jail for a lesser charge of sexual assault rather than the 22 years sought by the prosecution for rape or ‘sexual aggression’. They were also ordered to pay the victim 50,000 euros ($80,000 AUD) in damages.
The attack saw the five men lead the victim into a small space where she was penetrated in the mouth by all men, in the vagina by two and anally by another. After the assault, the men allegedly stole the victim’s phone so that she was unable to call for help. She was later found sobbing alone on a bench by a couple passing by.
Considering the graphic details of the attack, for many Spaniards it warrants disbelief that it was ruled as a sexual assault rather than rape. Unlike Australian law, in Spain a lack of consent and penetration isn’t enough to equal rape.
I didn’t know what to do, I wanted everything to be over quickly and I closed my eyes so as to not see what was happening and for it to finish fast.
According to Spanish Barrister and feminist, Leon Fernando Del Canto, sexual aggression or ‘rape’ is defined by Article 178 of the 1995 Spanish Penal Code as involving penetration but also “violence or intimidation”. Without the presence of physical violence or intent to cause harm (intimidation), sexual offences are often categorised as sexual assaults. This means that penetration of a victim when they’re intoxicated or unconscious will often be ruled as a sexual assault because violence or intimidation cannot be proven.
Spain’s collective head-scratching was brought on by judges ruling out ‘intimidation’ on the basis that there wasn’t an explicit threat to cause harm to the victim. Violence was also ruled out by the judges because no physical force was used.
Watching mobile phone footage filmed by the perpetrators, even the judges admitted “the victim is subject to the will of the accused, who use her as a mere object to satisfy… their sexual instincts.”
Judges said that the woman, whose identity has been withheld, is suffering from PTSD as a result of the incident. She told the court “I was completely in shock. I didn’t know what to do, I wanted everything to be over quickly and I closed my eyes so as to not see what was happening and for it to finish fast.”
The defence team argued that the incident could not have been rape as she didn’t try and defend herself by “biting their penises”.
History has shown us that when women dare to fight back or say no, they’re often killed at the hands of their attackers. In 2008, 20-year-old nurse Nagore Laffage was murdered at the Running of The Bulls festival. Laffage was killed by 27-year-old doctor José Diego Yllanes who tore off her clothes and then attacked her. The reasoning he gave for murdering Laffage was that she refused to have sex with him and so “he lost his head”.
When women dare to fight back or say no, they’re often killed at the hands of their attackers.
“The current court interpretation of consent establishes that once the consent has been obtained to initiate a sexual intercourse, the other party has the right to do anything he wishes, as if the consent were a lord’s right,” Mr Del Canto says.
“The law should be rewritten to include any manoeuvre, manipulation or strategy to force or to cheat a woman to have sex or abuse any particular situation, including the use of drugs or alcohol. The issue of consent must be clarified legally. Any situation where women are not freely choosing the type of sexual relationship and the conditions must be considered sexual aggression [rape],” he says.
An online petition calling for the disqualification of the judges who passed the sentence has already amassed more than 1.2 million signatures. Spain’s #Metoo moment has caught fire, with thousands of women sharing experiences of sexual violence under the hashtag #cuentalo (tell it), and echoes of protest chants that started in Madrid - “If you violate her, you violate me!” - have been heard in cities across Europe.
